Would Gone With the Wind have become a best seller if Margaret Mitchell had called it “The Spoiled Belle”? Would your English teacher have made you read “Becalmed” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge instead of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner? What if Ernest Hemingway had called The Old Man and the Sea “Gone Fishing”? Despite all the agonizing modern authors go through over cover designs, fonts, page layouts and illustrations, there are only two things routinely visible on the bookshelf, table of contents, or magazine cover—the author’s name and the title. The author’s name is a brand—like DelMonte. If you’ve been around for a while and built a reputation for consistently superior writing, a reader of the non-relative persuasion may scoop up at your latest offering no matter what you name it. If you’re an unknown you can make that time-crunched browser want to investigate your work rather than the next one by giving it a great title. Consider this: if Stephen King wasn’t a household name, would Cujo or Carrie be good titles? No. But King’s reputation for producing outstanding horror stories makes these titles mere differentiators between one assuredly great tale and another. In his case, you can tell if you’re getting a horror story by the simplicity of his title—and the fact that he is Stephen King. But when King ventures away from straight horror, his titles become more intriguing. Stand By Me, Rita Hayworth andShawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are non-horror fare. This is an author who knows it’s a good thing to differentiate his products. In the universe beyond Stephen King, the title has only one purpose. It is the hook of all hooks. Tell the truth. Would you have even started reading this essay if I’d called it How To Name Your Story? I wouldn’t. Not even after I’d finished yawning. So what makes a good title?

Attention Grabbing: Your title’s main purpose is to grab the reader by the throat and say, “Read this!” To do that, it has to raise a question the reader desperately wants answered, even if it’s only, “What the heck ...?” Great examples are Lee Allen Hill’s essays Calling All Fruitflies (Part 1)andCalling All Fruitflies, Part Reduxor Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

Memorable: Ever been camping? The first thing you do is clear a space. Then you fill it with familiar camping things—your tent and campfire. Let your title do the same thing. Clear away the uncertainty in the reader’s mind and let him associate your title with something familiar and memorable—a well known place or phrase. Think The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (from Shakespeare’s Macbeth) or any of James A. Michener’s historical novels--Hawaii, Space and Chesapeake are prime examples.

Revealing: Somehow, your title should relate to what you’ve written, even sum it up—without giving away the store. Michener’s The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a good example, and so is The Big Fourth by Fred Waiss.

Given a good title’s influence on the number of readers your work attracts, it’s not unreasonable to give it at least as much thought as you do to your first and last paragraphs. After all, if your title’s a flop, it’s a good bet those paragraphs won’t ever be read.copyright 2014

Nancy, thanks for the compliment (and subtle blurb)! I usually struggle with titles--"Salvation" was, as you'll recall, "Duty." It had at least two other titles before that. I've got two spec. fiction stories out right now that have had at least three titles each. My story "Thanks, Winstons" had at least two earlier titles. It seems though that my non-fiction is easier to title effectively.
Great article on an important subject seldom discussed. Thanks.